What’s in a backyard?

26th October 2017

Your backyard is where you can live, work and play. It might be your garden, your balcony or rooftop, or the park where you take your dog for a walk. As our backyards in Auckland become smaller, you might consider a beautiful bush walk your backyard, or the stream by your house, or the beach down the road. Backyards come in all shapes and sizes.

Right now our BIG North-West backyard is in trouble. While advertising would have you believe otherwise, our environment is really starting to show some of the damage of long-term abuse. Native trees and plants are being suffocated by weeds, which in turn has a negative impact on our native birds.

Many of our native birds will only travel a short distance between potential homes – sometimes less than 1km! As more of our land is being used for housing and services, we need to keep and create green links for our wildlife, making sure they have somewhere to live too.

The North-West Wildlink Partnership Group was introduced as a group of committed organisations working to gather support in growing the ‘North-West Wildlink’. The Wildlink is an initiative to restore, create and connect healthy habitats between the Hauraki Gulf Islands and Waitakere Ranges, so that our native birds and wildlife can once again thrive.

From this work, it’s not just our native birds and animals who benefit – what’s good for them is good for us. Restoring our native landscape also means we;

improve air and water quality,

reduce sedimentation in the Waitematā,

reduce infrastructure costs, especially stormwater,

increase house values,

increase recreational opportunities,

reduce health costs, including mental health,

increase tourism opportunities,

increase community pride, resilience and life satisfaction.

So, these are just some of the reasons Our Big Backyard exists… To connect the backyards of the North-West and create one beautiful big backyard for humans and birds alike.

The good news is that change is here, and it starts with you! Taking action in your backyard, whether it is at home, on your rooftop, in your local park, community garden or volunteering in a national park… every small action you take will make a difference in creating the most beautiful backyard for humans and birds alike.